5 Key Stories: 10/8/16 – 10/14/16
Here are five of the biggest stories this week at MLBTR.
Braves hire Brian Snitker as manager. The Braves dropped Brian Snitker’s interim tag, officially making him their full-time manager. They also hired former Rangers manager Ron Washington as their third base coach, and made third base coach Bo Porter a special assistant to GM John Coppolella. Washington left a coaching job with the Athletics in order to be closer to his family in New Orleans.
The 2017 qualifying offer will be $17.2MM. FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported that the amount of the qualifying offer will increase to $17.2MM this offseason, and will be included in the next CBA, albeit with some adjustments. That’s a boost of $1.4MM over last year’s qualifying offer figure. Last week, MLBTR’s Steve Adams listed Neil Walker, Michael Saunders, Wilson Ramos, Kendrys Morales, Mike Napoli and Matt Wieters as players who might or might not receive a qualifying offer; perhaps the increase of the qualifying offer figure will affect some of them.
Super Two cutoff to be between 2.127 and 2.131 years of MLB service time. MLBTR projected the Super Two cutoff for this year’s crop of players approaching arbitration. Kevin Kiermaier could become eligible for arbitration as a Super Two, while Rougned Odor, David Peralta and Dan Straily seem likely to just miss the cut. MLBTR also projected arbitration salaries for the 2017 season.
Pitchers receive injury news. Cardinals reliever Zach Duke underwent Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2017 season. Injured Padres righty Tyson Ross, meanwhile, had surgery to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome, and could be ready for Spring Training. The news was better for Angels righty Garrett Richards, who made only six starts in 2016. He’s set to have a normal offseason after avoiding Tommy John surgery.
Carlos Beltran to play in 2017. Rangers DH/OF Carlos Beltran says he’ll be back in 2017 for his age-40 season. Beltran, who batted a strong .295/.337/.513 with 29 home runs in 2016, figures to be a solid option for AL teams in need of an extra bat.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
West Notes: Hernandez, Rockies, Hale
The Dodgers left utilityman Enrique Hernandez off their roster for the NLDS, but they’ve added him for their upcoming series against the Cubs and will start him today against lefty Jon Lester, ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets. The idea, perhaps, is that the Dodgers’ group of position players is lefty-heavy, and the Cubs have plenty of lefty pitching (including Lester, Aroldis Chapman, Travis Wood, Mike Montgomery, and rookie reliever Rob Zastryzny, who the Cubs have announced has replaced infielder Tommy La Stella on their NLCS roster). Hernandez gives the Dodgers an extra right-handed bat. While he struggled overall this season, batting .190/.283/.324 in 244 plate appearances, Hernandez has a career .270/.362/.478 line against left-handed pitchers. Here’s more from the West divisions.
- It’s time for the Rockies to start spending heavily in hopes of making a playoff push, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. Saunders cites Olney, who notes the recent correlation between spending and winning, with the Indians being the only team with a below-median payroll to make the playoffs. Whether some of Saunders’ proposed moves would actually propel the Rockies to the postseason is debatable — he suggests, for example, that the Rockies ought to consider sending Charlie Blackmon to St. Louis for Matt Adams and Trevor Rosenthal, should such a deal be offered. Adams’ power would likely play well at Coors Field, but the Rockies would sorely miss Blackmon, who joined Nolan Arenado and DJ LeMahieu as one of the team’s best players in 2016.
- The Athletics are talking to former Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale about their third base coach position, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. The job opened when Ron Washington departed for the Braves. All the Athletics’ other coaches are expected to return next season. Hale was the Athletics’ bench coach for three seasons before heading to Arizona, and Slusser writes that he was popular with Athletics players.
Cubs Notes: Baez, NLCS Roster, Zastryzny
Heading into the 2011 draft, the Cubs were set on Javier Baez with the ninth overall pick, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. Rosenthal reports of a pre-draft conversation between then-Cubs scouting director Tim Wilken (now a special assistant with the Diamondbacks) and Padres exec Jason McLeod (now with the Cubs). The Padres wanted to take Francisco Lindor with the tenth overall pick and were curious about whether the Cubs would be selecting him. Wilken told McLeod that Baez was a “no-doubter” if he was still on the board when the Cubs picked. McLeod wasn’t as convinced: “I remember calling Jed after the game and saying, ‘This guy may be Manny Ramirez, or he might never get out of Double A!’ We weren’t convicted on the hit tool at the time and probably could have done a better job getting to know him personally.” In fairness to McLeod, Baez has struggled to control the strike zone in his young career, although he’s made up for that with defense and power. Either pick would have turned out just fine, of course, as both are now emerging young players who have already made noise in this year’s playoffs. The Indians ultimately took Lindor with the eighth pick; the Cubs took Baez at No. 9, as promised, and the Padres selected Cory Spangenberg at No. 10. Here’s more out of Chicago.
- Cubs GM Jed Hoyer says the process by which the team sets its NLCS roster will involve a “lot of yelling,” as Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic writes. That roster will be announced this morning. “The first one to get to this point was a lot of back and forth. This will obviously be a quicker meeting with less time to make the decision,” says Hoyer. It’s just one decision, whether we want to do 12 or 11 [pitchers]. A lot of that will depend on the opponent.” Sharma outlines the decisions in play this time, suggesting that infielder Tommy La Stella, outfielder Matt Szczur, lefty Rob Zastryzny and others could be on the bubble.
- Since they’re facing the Dodgers (whose collection of left-handed hitters includes Adrian Gonzalez, Corey Seager, Chase Utley, Andre Ethier, Joc Pederson, Josh Reddick and Andrew Toles), the Cubs seem likely to add Zastryzny, Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune writes. Gonzales notes that the rookie left-hander has already faced the Dodgers once in his brief MLB career, throwing 3 2/3 scoreless innings against them in a strong outing April 27. “I looked at their lineup. I watched (Game 5 of the NL Division Series),” says Zastryzny. “I have thrown against them before.”
Giants Have Had Preliminary Talks With Madison Bumgarner On New Contract
We looked previously at the comments of the Giants’ top executives following the team’s postseason exit, but it seems worth exploring one major long-term question on its own. As Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News reports, the team’s leadership also talked about the possibility of a second extension for workhorse ace Madison Bumgarner.
There have been at least preliminary discussions between the team, Bumgarner, and his new representatives at The Legacy Group, GM Bobby Evans said. As things stand, though, it doesn’t appear that any significant progress has been made — or that there are any firm plans to chat further this winter.
Bumgarner, 27, just turned in his fourth consecutive season with over 200 innings of sub-3.00 ERA pitching, cementing his status as one of the game’s most productive starters. And his value is only enhanced by his remarkable postseason record; over 102 1/3 total frames, he has dominated to the tune of a 2.11 ERA.
Owing to the brilliant original extension reached by the team, San Francisco has plenty of time to think things over and try to exercise some leverage. Bumgarner will earn just $11.5MM next year and can be retained for two more seasons via successive $12MM options, making him one of the game’s most valuable assets.
That contractual control runs through Bumgarner’s age-29 season, so there’s plenty of relatively young seasons still in play. Obviously, risk and reward is inherent in any deal involving pitching, for both player and team. While it’s easy to imagine something coming together — we have seen second long-term extensions for players such as Ryan Braun, Evan Longoria, Ryan Zimmerman, David Wright, Salvador Perez, and (of perhaps greater relevance) Justin Verlander — there’ll surely be plenty of jockeying involved.
There’s little question that Bumgarner is a screaming value who would command a much greater price in another deal, especially with the price of pitching moving northward of late. Acknowledging that while factoring in the team’s locked-in years and dollars could prove tricky, especially with the fiery hurler’s impeccable health history and dogged consistency driving his potential future free agent value up.
There does seem to be a fairly special relationship between the ace and an organization that has a penchant for retaining its most treasured players. CEO Larry Baer acknowledged as much. “[Bumgarner has] been a tremendous asset for us,” he said. “He’s done historic things. But, look, obviously, we want to make Madison a Giant for a long, long time to come – well-beyond his current contract.”
Still, Baer declined to make a firm commitment as to how hard the team would press to get something done. “I think that remains to be seen,” he said of how the team will prioritize extension talks with Bumgarner. And Evans seemingly suggested that the ball is in the court of the pitcher and his advisers at present. “When they’re interested in talking, we want to make sure we’re available,” he said. “But we don’t have a timeline. We want Madison to be here for a long time. At the right time, we’ll address this when his camp is ready to talk.”
Baggarly explores whether the team’s situation with the equally excellent Johnny Cueto could tie into the timing. As he notes, whether Cueto pitches well enough again next year to opt out of the final four years of his deal will have a major impact on the state of the team’s future balance sheet. San Francisco already has more cash promised to veterans than most organizations in the game, with nearly $100MM committed through 2020.
Those broader considerations will surely weigh into the equation, though it’s tough to imagine the large-market, perennial contenders passing up an opportunity to achieve yet more value from their world-class lefty. Whether and when such a chance will arise figures to be a storyline that will grow in prominence as the three remaining years on Bumgarner’s deal tick down.
Heyman’s Latest: Britton, Escobar, Desmond, Votto, Phillips, D-Backs
In addition to speaking with Orioles manager Buck Showalter about his decision not to deploy ace reliever Zach Britton in the Wild Card game, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag covers a number of notable topics in his most recent column. Among the highlights with a transactional component:
- Unsurprisingly, the Royals will exercise a club option over shortstop Alcides Escobar. It’s just $6.5MM (with a $500K buyout otherwise), and the club doesn’t seem willing yet to trust the job to prospect Raul Mondesi. Still the 29-year-old owns an anemic .259/.293/.335 batting line over the last two seasons; even with his typically strong defense and baserunning included, he has been a below-average regular. Escobar will have plenty to play for with free agency looming.
- It’s even less surprising to hear that the Rangers intend to make a qualifying offer to Ian Desmond, the shortstop-turned-center fielder. Texas remains very high on Desmond despite his fall-off down the stretch, says Heyman, and it seems plausible to imagine a reunion. The $17.2MM QO also appears to be the right move from a market perspective, as Desmond ought to be able to command a strong multi-year deal even after turning it down.
- We’ve heard chatter in the past about prior talks between the Blue Jays and Reds regarding first baseman Joey Votto, and Heyman discusses it further in a separate piece. There’s nothing brewing at present, but Toronto has made clear they’d like to be involved if Cincinnati undertakes any chatter on a player who may be the best hitter in the National League. Reds GM Dick Williams tells Heyman that he’s not looking to shop the superstar and also hasn’t been told that Votto (who possesses full no-trade rights) wants to depart. Even if there is mutual interest, of course, there’s the matter of sorting out the cash and prospects — which will likely be a tall order.
- Williams also tells Heyman that he believes the Reds took positive steps at the major league level in 2016, suggesting that the organization is happy to hang onto a highly popular and productive player despite his massive salary. The situation may be somewhat different with regard to second baseman Brandon Phillips, though, with Heyman writing that the team intends to find a way to get Jose Peraza into the lineup quite a bit. They’ll “make this clear” to Phillips, he says, though it isn’t known whether the veteran will be amenable to waiving his own no-trade protection after demanding an extension to do so in the past. The 35-year-old is down to the final year of his deal, though, after turning in a solid-but-unspectacular .291/.320/.416 batting line. Though metrics soured a bit on his glove, Phillips has a long history of strong defensive work. A $14MM tab on a one-year commitment is hardly unworkable, though hypothetically interested organizations may ask Cinci to kick in some cash.
- Heyman also tackled the Diamondbacks‘ front office search. Reported interest in Nationals president and GM Mike Rizzo seems likely to be a non-starter. “I don’t think there’s anything to it,” said Washington owner Mark Lerner, who called it “a totally fabricated story.” The floating of interest in Rizzo could hint that Arizona has its eyes on an exec with experience running a baseball operations department, Heyman suggests, with the team perhaps hoping to return immediately to competitiveness rather than undertaking a rebuild. A general manager with another team suggests that he thinks the D-Backs will need to guarantee a five-year term to draw a strong candidate, given the frequency of front-office turnover in Arizona.
Bo Porter Among Additional Possible Rockies Managerial Candidates
Former Astros skipper and current Braves special assistant Bo Porter is receiving at least some consideration for the Rockies’ open managerial position, according to MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. The report identifies a number of other possibilities on a growing list of names who appear to be on Colorado’s radar.
Another former Astros’ manager, current Indians bench coach Brad Mills, has also come up. His Cleveland staff mate, first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr., is another name to watch. Obviously, neither of those possible candidates can be pursued in earnest at present, with the Indians just opening play in the ALCS.
Two other bench coaches who could draw interest from the Rockies are Dave Martinez of the Cubs, who also is busy with his current position, and Ron Wotus of the Giants. We heard earlier today that Wotus had received contact from a team with a managerial opening. Given that the Diamondbacks — the other team with an opening — haven’t yet resolved their front office situation, it seems reasonable to suspect that it was the Rockies who came calling.
Today’s report significantly expands the group of names tied in some way to the Rockies’ top dugout post. Last we checked in, the scuttlebutt was that former Brewers skipper Ron Roenicke (most recently of the Angels), former Padres manager Bud Black (ditto), Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, Braves first base coach Eddie Perez, and Rockies Triple-A skipper Glenallen Hill had some form of connection to the gig — though in some cases, the reporting involved interest on their behalf rather than the team’s.
All told, that slate largely represents a “who’s who” of skippers-to-be around the game. Those that haven’t yet taken managerial jobs at the major league level have at least interviewed for jobs with other organizations.
Still, the Rockies aren’t just looking to plug in an experienced hand. According to Harding, Colorado hopes to find someone “who will apply statistics and other research into managing and coaching, and who are adept at various methods for creating team chemistry.” In that regard, certainly, the organization seems to be participating in a near-universal trend leaguewide.
Garrett Richards Expects To Be Ready For 2017 Season
6:31pm: Richards has indeed been cleared by Yoon, meaning he’ll now prepare for Spring Training as usual rather than undergoing Tommy John surgery, Fletcher reports.
1:11pm: The news that both Garrett Richards and Andrew Heaney had damaged ulnar collateral ligaments back in May was a dagger to the hearts of Angels fans everywhere, but it now appears that Richards’ decision to elect for stem cell treatment over Tommy John surgery may have been prudent. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes that Richards made another successful start in the instructional league yesterday, throwing 55 pitches in front of a large contingent of Angels decision-makers, including GM Billy Eppler, pitching coach Charles Nagy and owner Arte Moreno. Richards reported no issues following the start, and the team, according to Fletcher, now believes that he can return to anchor the rotation in 2017.
“The ball felt like it was coming out of my hand as good as it ever has,” said Richards. “It was cutting and sinking. I was throwing my slider for strikes and balls, same as my curveball. If I can go do that, there’s no worry in my mind. … I’m excited about pitching next year.”
Richards is set to meet with Dr. Steve Yoon for a final examination of his elbow today (including an MRI), per Fletcher. Richards may receive an additional stem-cell injection to continue to strengthen the ligament while he rests between now and the resumption of his throwing program in January. Fletcher suggests that today’s exam is little more than a formality, noting that Richards’ velocity was up to 96 mph in yesterday’s outing.
If Richards is able to successfully rehabilitate a partially torn UCL via this stem cell therapy, it could indeed be a significant development not just for him and the Angels but for future victims of UCL injuries. Richards tells Fletcher that he’s hopeful that what he believes will be a successful recovery will persuade other pitchers in his situation to try an alternative method to Tommy John before undergoing surgery.
For the Angels, the importance of an unexpected rebound for Richards can’t be emphasized enough. The team already lost both Heaney (who attempted the same stem cell treatment without the same success) and Nick Tropeano to Tommy John surgery, and both C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver are free agents at season’s end. Not long ago, it looked like the Halos would head into the 2017 season with Ricky Nolasco and Matt Shoemaker as the only sure things in their rotation, with a hopefully healthier Tyler Skaggs and an unproven Alex Meyer as rotation options for the upcoming year as well. If Eppler and his staff can pencil Richards into that equation with any form of certainty, it should make the Angels’ offseason navigation markedly easier. Certainly, the team will still need to focus on accumulating further rotation options, but a healthy Richards is the most cost-effective impact move the Angels could make to next year’s rotation, based on his $7MM projected arbitration salary (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).
NL East Notes: Tebow, Mets, Kelley, Ramos, Washington
The Mets not only gave former quarterback Tim Tebow a $100K bonus, but handed him a cherished spot in the Arizona Fall League, and ESPN.com’s Keith Law argues (Insider link) that both were mistakes. Tebow, 29, lacks the baseline skill of his fellow entrants in the prospect-heavy offseason competition, Law opines after taking an in-person look. The prospect guru panned Tebow’s contact ability at the plate and his instincts in the field, and took no prisoners in assessing the totality of the situation: it was, in Law’s words, “a craven, mercenary move befitting an independent-league team desperate for the added revenue from ticket sales, not something a major league team with postseason aspirations should be doing.”
Here’s more from the NL East:
- Mets GM Sandy Alderson and manager Terry Collins sat down with Ken Davidoff of the New York Post this spring, talking through the season to come with the understanding that their comments wouldn’t be published until year end. At the time, none of the challenges that sprung up during the 2016 campaign were really evident, but both leaders noted the variability inherent in the game and acknowledged that the health of the rotation and lineup could never really be assured.
- Outgoing Nationals free agent Wilson Ramos had successful surgery today to repair ACL and meniscus tears in his right knee, as the team announced and Jon Heyman of Fan Rag first reported. Estimates of his recovery timeline are ranging between six and eight months — which would obviously push into the early or middle portion of the 2017 season. Given that uncertainty, but also Ramos’s young age (he just turned 29) and top-level production (.307/.354/.496 batting line, 22 home runs in 2016), his free agent case will be among the more interesting in recent memory.
- The Nationals not only suffered yet another heartbreaking NLDS exit last night, but also watched key reliever Shawn Kelley leave with what looked to be a potentially significant arm injury. He said after the game that he lost feeling in his hand after throwing his final pitch, but there seems to be hope that a major problem has been averted, as MLB.com’s Bill Ladson reports. Kelley suggested that he hopes “it’s just a nerve thing,” explaining that he experienced worsening numbness rather than suffering an acute injury. Kelley is owed $11MM over the next two years and just wrapped up an excellent 2.64 ERA showing in 2016, with 12.4 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 over 58 frames. Needless to say, he’s an important part of the Nats’ relief corps, and the organization already will likely be hunting for a big pen arm with mid-season closer acquisition Mark Melancon hitting free agency.
- Newly-inked Braves third base coach Ron Washington thought at one point he’d land the team’s managerial job, as John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group reports. “I thought my interview was good to the point I got that I had the [managerial] job, no doubt in my mind,” Washington said. “But you never know what the other side is thinking and how it will go. They offered me a different job in the organization.” Though he missed on the top post, and could’ve earned the same money on a two-year deal to stay with the Athletics in a coaching capacity, Washington chose to take a position that would put him closer to home.
Zach Duke Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
Cardinals lefty Zach Duke has undergone Tommy John surgery and also had work done to his flexor muscle, according to MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch (via Twitter). He’ll miss all of the 2017 season, after which time he is set to reach free agency.
Duke, 33, reinvented himself as a reliever after beginning his career as a mediocre starter. A redemptive 2014 season earned him a three-year, $15MM contract with the White Sox. He had delivered 98 1/3 frames of 3.11 ERA ball to Chicago heading into this year’s trade deadline, striking out 9.9 but walking 4.4 batters per nine in that span.
St. Louis didn’t make any major splashes in the summer trade market, but did ship outfielder Charlie Tilson to the White Sox to add Duke. In doing so, the club sought not only to bolster its pen from the left side down the stretch in 2016, but also to get out ahead on its shopping list heading into 2017.
Duke provided the Cards with 23 1/3 quality frames, posting a 26:13 K/BB ratio and allowing just five earned runs on 17 hits. He has been brutal for opposing lefties in recent years, and continued that trend in 2016.
While St. Louis won’t enjoy Duke’s presence in the 2017 pen, it will remain obligated to him for the final $5.5MM of his deal. While there are internal options available, led by Kevin Siegrist, the loss could well have a rather substantial impact on the team’s offseason plans. It squarely puts the club in the market for another southpaw, and perhaps even adds to the case for picking up the option of southpaw Jaime Garcia — who could conceivably be utilized in a swingman role.
Royals Rumors: Payroll, Duffy, Morales
While the expectation surrounding the Royals has been that they’ll have to reduce payroll in 2017 after a franchise-record $140MM mark in 2016 — GM Dayton Moore himself has recently suggested as much, in fact — team owner David Glass tells Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star that he hasn’t made a final determination on the payroll. Glass calls Moore a “very persuasive” general manager and said there’s no way of knowing where the payroll will stand due to the fact that there’s no way of knowing what the offseason will hold.
“I don’t know where we’ll end up,” Glass tells Mellinger. “…[W]hat we actually do depends on the opportunities we have, and none of us, including our general manager, know right now what we can do.” The roster impact of Glass’ apparent openness to continuing to spend at an aggressive level remains to be seen, but Mellinger reports that the Royals, as a franchise, actually lost at least $10MM overall in 2016.
As Mellinger points out, the Royals are facing a payroll increase even if they simply stand pat and let Edinson Volquez and Kendrys Morales depart via free agency. (Kansas City reportedly plans to buy out Volquez’s $10MM mutual option.) Indeed, the Royals will see a number of built-in contractual raises as well as numerous arbitration raises that will spike payroll. Alex Gordon‘s salary jumps from $12MM to $16MM next season, and he’s hardly alone when it comes to escalating salaries. Ian Kennedy ($7.5MM to $13.5MM), Lorenzo Cain ($6.5MM to $11MM), Mike Moustakas ($5.6MM to $8.7MM), Chris Young ($4.25MM to $5.75MM), Joakim Soria ($7MM to $8MM), Salvador Perez ($2MM to $3MM), Mike Minor ($2MM to $4MM) and Yordano Ventura ($1MM to $3.25MM) will all see their guaranteed salaries rise. And, as we projected earlier this week, the Royals also stand to see substantial arbitration raises for Eric Hosmer, Danny Duffy, Kelvin Herrera and Jarrod Dyson.
Kansas City does have some payroll coming off the books. In addition to Volquez and Morales, the Royals could see Luke Hochevar and Kris Medlen depart. And they have some non-tender candidates, including Tony Cruz, Daniel Nava, Tim Collins and Dillon Gee. Those subtractions, though, won’t offset the raises throughout the rest of the roster. That’s likely the reason that there are already rumors about the Royals trading closer Wade Davis, who is set to earn $10MM next year (once his option is picked up). However, Glass’ comments at least curb what appeared t be a foregone conclusion regarding payroll reduction.
As Mellinger writes, one creative way to manage the 2017 payroll to some extent would be to agree to backloaded extensions with Duffy and Herrera. Both the team and Duffy have expressed interest in a long-term deal before, and Mellinger writes that the plan is indeed to talk about an extension this winter. If that’s the case, the Royals could guarantee Duffy significantly less than his $8.2MM arbitration projection in 2017 and pay him at a higher rate in subsequent seasons of the deal — after some combination of Cain, Moustakas, Hosmer and Davis are off the books. A similar approach could be employed with Herrera, whom MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected to receive a healthy bump from $2.55MM to $5.3MM.
One party, in particular, may come away as the beneficiary of a potential payroll crunch in Kansas City, though, as FanRag’s Jon Heyman reports within his latest notes column that the team is unlikely to make a qualifying offer to Morales. The 33-year-old switch-hitter enjoyed a monstrous four-month stretch to close out the season, hitting .296/.357/.531 with 24 homers in 106 games en route to an overall line of .263/.327/.468 (and his first 30-homer season since 2009). However, the Royals believe there’s a good chance that Morales would accept the qualifying offer after rejecting one from the Mariners in 2013 and languishing on the free agent market until the following June.
While Heyman writes that in an ideal world, Kansas City would prefer to keep the slugging DH in 2017 and beyond, the Royals are also intrigued by the idea of a floating DH role that would allow Gordon, Moustakas (who had surgery to repair a torn ACL earlier this year) and Perez to get the occasional breather from the rigors of their daily defensive routines. Perez, in particular, strikes me as someone who stands to gain from that line of thinking, as he’s averaged a staggering 137.5 starts behind the plate per season dating back to 2013.